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January 27, 2004

Apparently Ric Curry knew 5thEstate.com was on to him. As this story was written, he resigned!

(rush story - sorry for mistake - Ric Curry on January 14, 2004 when 5thEstate.com asked if he has hired any of his relatives:

"I want to make this very clear, I did not hire any of my relatives, there's school district policy that speaks to that issue. That a relative or a close relation cannot be supervised by their relative. In this case, in hindsight I might do something different. " (refering to David Deshields)

"Check my record. If you know anything about Ric Curry, he has a huge family, a huge family. I am one of ten. And you will not find in the 16 years of Philadelphia where any of my brothers or sisters, neices or nephew worked with me. Certainly I'm in Lancaster now and have been here since March there's not a relative of mine that is on the payroll of this district."

Well we checked his record. Apparently when Ric says "..not a relative of mine that is on the payroll.." it depends on what the meaning of the word IS is! On January 10 we revealed that Curry had hired his brother-in-law. For days, Curry denied it. Yesterday we revealed that consultant Valeria Booker cashed at least one of her checks at a "check cashing" place. We showed pictures of her "office" with a flea-bitten couch on the porch - certainly not fitting for a $600 a day consultant. Now we have discovered that Valeria Booker is Ric Curry's SISTER. That's right Curry gave his sister, with a few day-care classes, $5,400 total to instruct him on literacy. This despite the fact that her invoices showed her complete and utter ignorance of the English language!

Apparently, since Curry was just LIVING with Tamara DeShields, he didn't feel like the prohibition against hiring relatives applied (Curry married in September 20, 2003). That's right Curry gave his live-in-girl friend-now-wife $4,500 of your tax dollars!

But here is the kicker: All of this was under Secretary of Education Vicki Phillip's watch!

Stay tuned to 5thEstate.com - where the media gets the news!

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